Environmental Sustainability Experience - Dr Craig Jones

Dr Craig Jones is founder and Managing Director at Circular Ecology. He is also a specialist in embodied carbon assessment, carbon footprinting, carbon offsetting and life cycle assessment (LCA). 

He has a diverse project history and has worked with clients such as Dyson, Kingsmill, E.ON, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, PHS, UNEP, WRAP, Tesco’s, Willmott Dixon, Lafarge, The Olympic Delivery Authority, and Masdar city.

Craig provided the data to carbon footprint the construction of the London 2012 Olympics and tailored an embodied energy and carbon database for the $22 billion Masdar city in Abu Dhabi, which aspires to be the first zero carbon, zero waste and car free city. He wrote the first book dedicated to embodied carbon in construction and gained his PhD by the rare route of publication, which involved publishing 9 academic articles on the topic of embodied carbon and life cycle assessment.

Craig has a broad and deep experience of footprinting and LCA which includes many hundreds of building materials and building products, entire buildings, power stations, roads, electrical cables, national electricity systems, sludge dewatering systems, breakwater systems, high tech fabrics, photovoltaic systems, solar thermal systems, Dyson’s Airblade hand dryers, breads, pig farming systems, natural and organic pesticides, textiles and more. Craig also lead the technical development of an embodied water (footprint) database for materials, is an experienced peer reviewer, has created many carbon footprint calculators and is PRINCE II qualified, managing projects for both commercial and public sector clients.

Read more about Craig’s project experience.

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Craig’s Project History

Craig has been working in the area of environmental sustainability for over 10 years. He has a perse project history, mainly in embodied energy, embodied carbon, carbon footprinting, water footprinting and life cycle assessment (LCA).

A selection of Craig’s project history is shown below. Some of the projects were delivered through Circular Ecology, and some in Craig’s previous roles.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Car Door Panels

Craig assessed the environmental impacts of car door panels using LCA. The study compared the environmental impacts to manufacture door panels from steel, aluminium and carbon fibre. These were then compared with the fuel use in operation of a car. The weight of the doors were considered where steel was the heaviest and carbon fibre the lightest.

Business Case for Product Resource Efficiency, WRAP

Craig managed the delivery of a project for WRAPs construction team to determine the business case for using more resource efficient construction products. The project produced business cases for manufacturers, suppliers, designers, contractors and clients.

Dyson – Airblade Hand Dryer PAS 2050 Carbon Footprint and Carbon Trust Carbon Label

Craig led the carbon footprinting of Dyson’s new range of Airblade hand dryers. He built a carbon footprint tool and modelled the carbon footprint of seven different machines for the Carbon Trust’s product carbon footprint label.

Design for Resource Efficiency, WRAP

Whilst working at Sustain, Craig worked with Faithful + Gould / Atkins to deliver the WRAP project DRE101-101. The project helped WRAP scope work in the area of resource efficient construction. It included design for resource efficiency, resource efficiency metrics and an outline business case for reducing construction environmental impacts.

Resource Efficiency Assessment of a Power Station (LCA)

E.ON required a resource efficiency assessment for the construction of a power station. Craig modelled the carbon, water, waste, disposal efficiency and hazardous impacts of the power station construction along with a number of options for improvement.

Embodied Water Footprint Database for Materials and Industrial Products

Craig created the idea to create an embodied water, or water footprint, database for industrial products and won a grant from the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB – now Innovate UK) in 2012. Craig led the development of the database whilst at Sustain.

Water Footprint Calculator for Meals

Craig produced a water footprint calculator for meals. The calculator allowed recipes to be entered into the tool and for the water footprint to be calculated per portion.

Peer Review of WRAP’s Resource Efficiency Benchmarks for Construction

Craig peer reviewed WRAP’s Resource Efficiency Benchmarks for Construction. The benchmarks included embodied carbon, water use, recycled content, waste, total materials use and fossil fuel consumption. Benchmarks were created for many construction project types.

Peer Review of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) Footprint Calculator for WRAP

Craig peer reviewed WRAP’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) Footprint Calculator. The review involved checking almost 100 worksheets of data and calculations as well as the user interface and that the results were robust and reliable.

Carbon Footprint Calculator of Sludge Dewatering and Breakwater Systems

Craig completed a carbon footprint for TenCate’s high tech fabrics in the Netherlands, US and China. These fabrics are used in sludge dewatering applications and to create alternatives to rock breakwater systems. Two carbon calculators were produced. They compare the carbon footprint of the TenCate system with that of competing systems. The calculators were based on a robust and fair method and showed that TenCate’s system could save considerable amount of carbon.

The Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Database

Whilst at the University of Bath Craig created a leading embodied energy and carbon database for materials known as the ICE database. The ICE database has been used by over 30,000 professionals around the world to measure, monitor and manage embodied carbon emissions of real projects.

Embodied Carbon Assessment of a Timber Car Park

Craig led the embodied carbon assessment of a multi-storey timber car park for Bourne Engineering. The car park had glulam beams, plywood decking and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) wall on the ramp.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a PassvHaus

Craig completed a full LCA of a PassivHaus and compared the impacts to the construction of a typical house. The LCA considered the full life cycle of the house including construction, maintenance and end of life.

Carbon Footprint of Gardman Bird Feed

Whilst at Sustain Craig worked on the carbon footprint of Gardman’s bird feed. Gardman produce a large range of garden products.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Electricity Networks

Whilst at the University of Bath Craig worked as a researcher for two years on the transition Pathways project. His role was to model the LCA impacts of three difference decarbonisation scenarios for the UK out to 2050. Craig has published a paper in the journal Energy Policy with the results.

London 2012 Olympics Embodied Carbon

Craig provided embodied carbon data to carbon footprint the construction of the London 2012 Olympics. The London 2012 Olympics made many efforts to reduce the embodied carbon of construction, including the use of lower carbon additions in concrete mixtures.

WRAP – Embodied Carbon of Construction – Top Wins

Whilst at Sustain Craig worked with Davis Langdon to deliver a project for WRAP on embodied carbon in construction. The embodied carbon ‘top wins’ were determined by calculating the embodied carbon of real buildings and analysing lower carbon options. The work resulted in a short guide available from WRAP.

Bicester Eco Town – 40% Embodied Carbon Reduction

Craig worked with Willmott Dixon on an embodied carbon assessment for the Bicester Eco Town project, which had a 40% embodied carbon reduction placed on its design requirements. Craig modelled the embodied carbon and advised on the design measures to achieve the target.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of 11 KV Overground and Underground Electrical Cables

Western Power Distribution (WPD) wanted to understand the implications of replacing 11 kV electrical cables with oversized conductors and before they came to the end of their lives. Craig completed an LCA of five different 11 kV cables comparing the embodied carbon of materials with the electrical losses in operation.

Masdar City Embodied Carbon Database

Craig created an embodied energy and carbon database which was tailored specifically for the United Arab Emirates and for use on Masdar city. Masdar city is a $22 billion dollar development that aspires to be the first zero carbon, zero waste and car free city in the world.

Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) – Embodied Carbon Database

Whilst at Sustain Craig worked with Davis Langdon (now an AECOM company) to create an embodied carbon method and embodied carbon database for construction materials and products for Ireland. The work is currently going through peer review in Ireland before being launched to Industry.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Pig Farming Methods

Craig completed an LCA of pig farming methods. The study compared the LCA impacts of intensive versus outdoor reared pigs. It included the growing of the feed, manure management, on farm impacts and all of the impacts from farm to fork.

UKWIR Embodied Carbon Manual

The UK water sector has embodied carbon reporting requirements which is used to report the embodied carbon of new build assets. Craig supported the update of the original guidance manual for the water sector for UK Water Industry Research.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Synthetic versus Natural Pesticides

Craig modelled the LCA impacts of two types of pesticides. An LCA was completed for a natural and a synthetic based pesticide to the French environmental label method.

Environment Agency Carbon Calculator for Construction

The Environment Agency has a carbon calculator for construction. The Environment Agency was keen to update the carbon calculator and to release a new version. Craig offered guidance and support for the project and placed an emphasis on increasing the ability of the calculator to save carbon on real projects (i.e. away from measurement only and more towards carbon reduction).

Peer Review of TRLs asPECT Carbon Footprint Tool

Craig peer reviewed TRLs asPECT carbon footprint tool on asphalt pavements against the PAS 2050 standard. The review identified a number of improvements that were made to the tool.

Carbon Footprint of Heating System Fluids

Sentinel Solutions offer a range of heating and renewable system treatment fluids. Craig completed a PAS 2050 compliant carbon footprint of seven products for Sentinel from their renewable range.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Building Integrated Photovoltaics

Craig was employed as a researcher on the SUPERGEN project at the University of Bath. Craig’s role involved a detailed LCA of photovoltaic technologies.